Analysis of Evening In Autumn

James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)



The western sun withdrawn the shorten'd day,
And humid evening, gliding o'er the sky
In her chill progress, to the ground condensed
The vapours throws. Where creeping waters ooze,
Where marshes stagnate, and where rivers wind,
Cluster the rolling fogs, and swim along
The dusky-mantled lawn. Meanwhile the moon,
Full-orb'd, and breaking through the scatter'd clouds,
Shews her broad visage in the crimson east.
Turn'd to the sun direct, her spotted disk,
Where mountains rise, umbrageous dales descend,
And caverns deep, as optic tube descries,
A smaller earth, gives us his blaze again,
Void of its flame, and sheds a softer day.
Now through the passing cloud she seems to stoop,
Now up the pure cerulean rides sublime.
Wide the pale deluge floats, and streaming mild
O'er the skied mountain to the shadowy vale,
While rocks and floods reflect the quivering gleam,
The whole air whitens with a boundless tide
Of silver radiance, trembling round the world.


Scheme ABCDEFGHIJKDLAMNOPQRS
Poetic Form
Metre 0101010101 01010101001 001110101 011110101 110101101 1001010101 0111101 1101010101 1011000101 1101010101 11011101 010111011 0101111101 1111010101 1101011111 11011101 1011010101 100110101001 11010101001 011110101 110100100101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 944
Words 159
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 21
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 762
Words per stanza (avg) 157
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 28, 2023

49 sec read
407

James Thomson

James Thomson, who wrote under the pseudonym Bysshe Vanolis, was a Scottish Victorian-era poet famous primarily for the long poem The City of Dreadful Night, an expression of bleak pessimism in a dehumanized, uncaring urban environment. more…

All James Thomson poems | James Thomson Books

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